Rain on the Pavement
by Narutoxaddict
Summary: Just a one-shot on how Iruka's and Naruto's relationship formed.


I'm not really sure where this one came from, but I can't continue my stories when it keeps fogging up my brain.

For all the copyright owners out there: **I DO NOT OWN NARUTO!!**

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Rain pattered against the pavement of the street and against the glass of windows. The angry mob had all returned home as the storm got worse and their thirst for violence satisfied.

Lying in a ball was a young boy; he was smeared with dirt from the road and people's shoes that had viciously kicked him. Blood from oozing wounds added to the mess. The boy's blond hair was barley visible under all the grime that coated it.

The uncaring storm mixed with the blood that pooled under the shivering form. Scared, the boy opened his eyes. He knew he had to get out of the storm; the familiar dog-masked anbu was away on a mission, and wouldn't be here to help him this time. This happened at least once a year to the poor youth.

Shaking, the blond-haired boy stood on his unsteady feet. He wanted to cry, to yell for help, but that would only bring more pain to his body and mocking remarks to his ears. Nobody would help him because he was hated. He was the monster. He was the demon.

At seven years of age, the boy expected this yearly beating; the kind old man with the hokage robes gave him a medical-kit to take care of lesser injuries. As the bleeding boy stumbled home, he only passed a few people. Naruto didn't even look up to receive the glares and wordless language that was thrown at him daily.

Naruto arrived at his apartment: shivering, soaked, muddy, and still dripping blood. He somehow made it to his miniscule bathroom with out getting any blood on the floor. Naruto opened the medicine cabinet and reached for the case on the first shelf; the other shelves were empty do to his height.

The young boy washed himself in the sink and applied antiseptic ointment, along with bandages, to his wounds. As he cleaned and dressed the wounds, Naruto gave out small squeaks of pain from the stinging and burning sensations.

Naruto then curled into bed and went over the good things about his day as he usually did. Nobody had broken any of his windows this time, and he didn't have any serious injuries like he did last time. Last time, he had missed several days of class because he was in the hospital being treated with a broken leg.

Naruto's smile faded and hugged his knees to his chest; the growing sense of being alone was overtaking him again. During the day, he ignored the glares and the scowls and always kept a smile on his face. But during the night, the mask went with the setting sun and his smile broke with it.

As he often did when he was alone, Naruto broke down crying in silent fits of sobbing.

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The next day, villagers went around cleaning the debris that the nightly storm had brought in. Naruto walked down the streets to the academy with his goofy grin glued to his face. He ignored the ugly bruises and cuts that littered his arms, neck, and face. The blond was determined to make this a good day.

His teachers at the academy didn't even look twice at the damage that he wore, several were the ones who had placed them there, and continued to ignore his existence as usual. After lunch was over, the students assembled in their seats and Iruka entered the classroom to start the lesson.

He looks over his young students and his eyes land on Naruto. The boy had several healing bruises on his arms along with bandages that went up on his neck and face. He reached a particular section in the lecture to test and see how much the kids remembered.

"Alright, does anyone remember why weapon safety is one of the most important things to remember for training shinobi?"

A kid that raised their hand shouted, "Because if you don't, your face ends up looking like Naruto's."

Whipping around to give a response, Iruka immediately called the class back to order. Naruto was about to yell another of his loud comments when Iruka exclaimed, "Naruto! Not today!"

"But sensei!"

"Another outburst and you'll join him staying inside for recess."

"But …"

"Fine, see me after class then."

"That's not fair!"

"Please just not today, you got in enough trouble yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if you did get those bruises from poor weapon handling and they might actually teach you something."

Iruka then something he had never see before. Something behind Naruto's eyes broke away and left emotion that had should have been in a child's eyes. The boy looked down trying to ellipse what Iruka had seen.

The teacher saw several clashing emotions in that brief second: grief, defeat, sadness, and beaten. Iruka tried to push it from his mind for the time being, he had to finish before recess.

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After the bell rung all the students rushed out. Naruto was the only one to collect his books and walk to the front desk. With his head down to Iruka, and placed them on the desk; he already knew the drill, clean all of the blackboard with one of the wet rags from a bucket in the corner.

Iruka stepped out for a minute and the other boy began to mumble complaints.

"Just go," Naruto mumbled to him, "I'll finish it."

Confused, but not refusing the offer, the boy threw his rag in the bucket and ran out the open door. Naruto continued to clean the blackboard and watched the water drip down to the floor; his tears soon began to join the water drips on the floor. After the board was clean, Naruto picked up his books and went out to the roof where he knew nobody would be.

When Iruka came back into the classroom he was surprised to see the board completely clean. He walked over to the window and looked over the academy courtyard. He didn't see Naruto anywhere. He guessed where he was and went to the roof to disable any pranks before he pulled them off.

When the brown haired chunin reach the top of the stairs he found the young boy he was looking for, and what he saw shocked him. There was no prank, Naruto was crying. Iruka cringed as he suddenly remembered the look in Naruto's eyes in class. At that particular moment, Naruto revealed more emotions then anyone his age had experienced.

Iruka wasn't sure what he had said to trigger them either, he had scolded the boy multiple times it wasn't anything new. He had said something about earning the wounds he carried …, oh shit.

He had heard that sometimes mobs formed to hunt Naruto down, but he had brushed them off as pure rumors, surely the hokage wouldn't allow a child to come to such harm. Iruka thought back to all the times Naruto came to class with similar conditions, or missed class completely for several days at a time.

Iruka became horrified by what he had realized; the cuts and bruises weren't from training, they came from people. People who had maliciously beaten the small child for something he had no control over.

Naruto straightened himself when he discovered someone was watching him. He sucked back the tears that were raging to get out; he'd have to cry later. Still keeping his head down to his teacher Naruto walked by without looking up.

Iruka followed him back to the classroom and tried to ask why he wasn't down with his classmates. Naruto shrugged and returned to his seat and put his head down on the desk; he didn't feel like talking.

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Iruka was distracted for the rest of the class period, Naruto kept silent even after he dismissed the class. Iruka's heart felt like it was breaking for the usually loudmouthed boy, no one deserved to be treated like that.

He decided to ask the hokage about it. He knocked on the office door and entered when the voice beckoned him to come in.

"Hokage-sama, I needed to ask you something; it's about Naruto. Did you know that he sometimes comes into class covered in bruises, and other times he just doesn't show up at all for days?"

The old man behind the desk sighed, "Yes I unfortunately do Iruka, but the council, I can't really do anything till the beating is over, and even then I have limited ability to help him."

"But he's just a child."

"Things like this have happened to him longer then you can imagine; it's not usually this bad, but the few anbu that agree to help him were all away on missions. Did he seem seriously injured?"

"No, but I saw something in him today. His eyes, I'll never forget them, they held so much hurt and pain. Isn't there anything I can do?"

Naruto was walking home when a kind voice from behind him called, "Hey, brat."

Naruto froze, afraid of more beatings and harsh words. A group of extremely drunk men came up to the terrified child and talked to him with mocking laughter.

"Hey boys, I don't think the demon learned much from last night's lesson; what da'ya says we give him a follow up course?"

The men started to brutalize the boy who eventually screamed out for help. The crowd surrounding him only grew larger, with people jeering at him and yelling for blood. A young man stepped in and walked over to the boy and scooped him. Iruka looked down at the broken form and his arms and scowled.

"Don't you people have any shame, doesn't any of you have any guilt for beating a child mercilessly."

"Why do you care? He's a monster," the crowd replied.

"The only monsters I see are standing in front of me right now. You have broken this boy more times than he can probably count. I will tell you this; if the fourth was to come back and realize that you had defied his last wish, how do you think he would react? You make me sick; go back to your houses and leave him alone. You wouldn't dare defy the orders of the hokage, so leave!"

His words rang in the silence that followed; people returned to their homes and work and left the young man holding the child. Iruka looked down at the child; some of the cuts had opened up again, but there were no serious injuries.

He carried Naruto back to the boy's apartment and redressed some of the cuts. Iruka placed the unconscious boy in his bed and covered him with the blanket.

"You didn't need to do that."

Iruka turned around and looked at a dog-masked anbu.

"They were going to tear him to pieces."

Though the anbu had his face covered, Iruka could sense the sadness coming from the other man.

"You risked your reputation doing it, but I wanted to thank-you anyway. It took a lot of guts to stand up to that mob."

"You've seen the pain in his eyes; it has happened before hasn't it?"

"Yes, but I think they'll leave him alone for awhile at least, you left quite an impression. We should let him sleep. He'll be fine tomorrow, and I think he might open up to you more now. I warn you though, others will not react the same as I do to your kindness towards him."

Still looking at the anbu Iruka nodded, "I don't care."

The men left the apartment; when they reached the bottom, the anbu gave his farewell and left. Iruka looked at the apartment window and sighed. He knew his fellow staff would not approve of his actions towards Naruto but he would deal with it. Iruka knew the pain he had saw all to well. The pain of being alone.

Iruka looked at the illuminating horizon; he had to get home and have some sleep, it was going to be a long day tomorrow.

Alright, I think it's really corny but I love Iruka and Naruto's relationship in the series.

Reviews are appreciated!!!


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